GHAZNI: Taliban ambushed a police patrol in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing four policemen but also losing four of their own fighters, AFP quoted a local police commander as saying. The fighting late on Monday in Ghazni province south of Kabul was the latest in an increased wave of Taliban-linked violence in Afghanistan in recent years. “They killed four of our policemen,” Ghazni police chief Khan Muhammad said. Four rebels were killed in a counterattack by security forces, he added.Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed confirmed that four of his group were dead after the attack. Several policemen were also killed, he told AFP by telephone.
Welcoming Gates: Mujahed earlier claimed Taliban responsibility for a suicide car bombing in the capital, Kabul, that the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said wounded 22 Afghan civilians. The spokesman said the militant Islamic group carried out the attack to “welcome” US Defence Secretary Robert Gates who arrived in Kabul on Monday evening, Reuters reported.
There were no casualties among NATO troops in the blast which happened during the morning rush hour on a road just outside KabulÂ’s international airport, an alliance spokesman said. NATO put the number of Afghans wounded at 22. The spokesman for NATO, which runs a force separate to the US military in Afghanistan, said that one of its vehicles was damaged in the blast. Foreign and Afghan troops sealed off the site of the attack and smoke could be seen rising from the area.
A poll conducted for three Western television networks showed that only 42 percent of Afghans rated US efforts positively, down from 68 percent in 2005 and 57 percent last year. The poll conducted for ABC News of the United States, BritainÂ’s BBC and GermanyÂ’s ARD network also found that support for the Taliban fighters is rising. Twenty-three percent of those polled in the troubled southwest said people in their area support the Taliban, triple lastÂ’s year level.